A press conference addressing the eviction of residents of the Sugar Mountain Tent City on Franklin Street in Vancouver was interrupted by a cyclist who asked about bike theft on Friday.
The cyclist in question was pushed to the ground when speakers confronted him.
Troy Tyrell said he previously had his bike stolen, though he has since recovered it. When he asked about potential stolen property in the tent city, Herb Varley, one of the event organizers, pushed the cyclist after over six minutes of verbal confrontation.
Varley later said, “He fell down. I’m certain he’s fallen off his bike before.
“He told me to make him walk.”
When asked how he would respond if another person tried to interrupt the news conference, Varley said, “I’m not even going to answer that question. You can stop talking.
“That man was hijacking this event today. Not everyone who walks by is going to hijack this event. You can stop talking to me now. You can stop talking to me right now.”
The press conference had originally been organized to talk about the residents of Sugar Mountain being required to vacate the property by noon.
The Alliance Against Displacement organized the event to talk about demands they had to help homeless people.
Among other things, the alliance wants emergency shelters to be closed this winter, and it wants 10,000 emergency modular housing units around 400 square feet in size each to be opened in their place, each with self-contained kitchens and bathrooms in each unit.
The alliance also wants 10,000 social housing units to be built each year, so residents can move out of those modular units.
It also demanded that laws be put in place to prevent demovictions and renovictions of purpose-built rental apartment buidings.
The City of Vancouver put out a statement that the residents were being asked to leave the site because they wanted to build temporary modular housing on the site.
“On Friday, Dec. 8, city outreach staff visited the site to ask members of the encampment to move into a shelter where space was being held for all campers,” the city said in a statement.
“The shelter space welcomes couples, pets and has space to store belongings.”